Kathmandu, Nepal Victoria lies waiting at the neurology clinic. In September, a Danish daily newspaper ran a picture of an 18-month-old orphan from Nepal with hydrocephalus – the condition also known as ‘water on the brain’. She had been abandoned at birth and had no name – though hospital staff called her Ghane (‘Bighead’). Although the condition can be treated in the West, doctors in the hospital could not help her. Danish business executive Cecilie M. Hansen was deeply affected by the photo and decided to try to help the little girl. Cecilie visited Nepal, gave the girl a name – Victoria, for victory – and made arrangements with Nepal’s leading neurology clinic to operate, covering the cost herself. Because nothing had been done to relieve Victoria’s condition since birth, surgery was risky. In the time Cecilie was in Nepal, she bonded closely with Victoria, but eventually had to return to Denmark. A few days after arriving home she heard that despite doctors’ efforts, Victoria had died from heart failure.

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Mads Nissen was born in Denmark in 1979. After graduating in 2007 with a degree in photojournalism from The Danish School of Journalism he moved for two years to Shanghai to document the human and social consequences of China’s historic economic rise. In 2009, he was selected for the Joop Swart Masterclass. After working in China for such publications as Time, Newsweek, Der Spiegel and Stern, he returned to his home country, where he is now based.